Problem: Ishaan is 3 times as old as Gabriela and is also 16 years older than Gabriela. How old is Gabriela?
Solution: We can use the given information to write down two equations that describe the ages of Ishaan and Gabriela. Let Ishaan's current age be $i$ and Gabriela's current age be $g$ $i = 3g$ $i = g + 16$ Now we have two independent equations, and we can solve for our two unknowns. Since we are looking for $g$ , and both of our equations have $i$ alone on one side, this is a convenient time to use elimination. Subtracting the second equation from the first equation, we get: $0 =$ $3g$ $-$ $ (g + 16)$ which combines the information about $g$ from both of our original equations. Solving for $g$ , we get: $2 g = 16$ $g = 8$.